Prosecutor says Portway tried to turn his fantasy of torturing children into reality

Scott J. Croteau, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Published Sunday September 15, 2013 at 3:36 pm

Photo of Geoffrey Portway released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement May 8.

WORCESTER — The details are gruesome, graphic and unimaginable. But a federal prosecutor argues that Geoffrey Portway did more than just fantasize about raping, torturing and cannibalizing children; he took measures to make it a reality.

There are no claims Mr. Portway himself abused any children, according to records filed last week in U.S. District Court, where he is to be sentenced Tuesday. However, his online chats and creation of a dungeon led prosecutors to believe he eventually would.

As authorities investigated, they discovered a dungeon, a child-sized coffin, butchering tools and restraints in the basement of Mr. Portway's West Side home. They also uncovered evidence of detailed chats with other men who also were busted in an international child exploitation and pornography investigation.

"Portway may try to argue that the pictures and chats are just part of a fantasy life and that he never intended to carry out his plans, but the evidence clearly shows that is untrue," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf wrote. "There can be no better evidence of Portway's intent to carry through with his plans than the elaborate dungeon constructed in his home, at significant cost and effort."

The horrific and detailed chats on how to kill, dismember and cook a child appeared in a sentencing memorandum filed by the government.

Mr. Portway's lawyer said in his sentencing memorandum that his client's chats were part of a fantasy role.

"The defendant never touched a child nor sought to produce any type of child pornography on his own," defense lawyer Richard J. Sweeney wrote. Mr. Portway never acted out on his cannibalistic fantasies, the lawyer said.

Mr. Sweeney further argues the dungeon was a "theater" created by his client for role playing in a fantasy life. There are no indications that anyone willingly or forcibly entered the basement.

"The defendant would lie in both the cage and the box (referred to by the government as a 'coffin') as part of his role playing," Mr. Sweeney wrote. "Even though the basement was soundproof, the defendant's intention in soundproofing the room was to ensure that when he was engaged in consensual activities, he would not disturb his neighbors. There was no ulterior motive."

Mr. Portway, 40, who formerly lived at 31-2 Beechmont St., pleaded guilty in May to charges of solicitation to commit a crime, and possession and distribution of child pornography. He faces 18 to 27 years in prison. His lawyer plans to argue the lesser sentence. The British citizen, who was born in Spain and has lived in the United States most of his life, will be deported after his sentence is served, according to court records.

When authorities searched Mr. Portway's home with a federal search warrant July 27, 2012, they seized computer equipment and discovered tens of thousands of images and videos showing children being raped and tortured. Some images showed dead children, federal documents said.

Mr. Portway lived in four different countries and attended schools in Framingham. At an early age, Mr. Portway realized he was gay and feared his family would not accept him, the lawyer wrote.

Mr. Portway has no criminal history and worked full time for 12 years as a senior computer operator for BJ's Wholesale Club in Westboro before his arrest, according to paperwork filed by the defense.

Dr. Eric L. Brown, a psychologist who evaluated Mr. Portway for the defense, said at a young age Mr. Portway became fascinated with the idea of being eaten and became sexually aroused at the idea. He desired to be wanted and valued by another person, the doctor wrote.

Mr. Portway insisted he was not aroused by violence or human suffering, but he did seek out chat-rooms discussing cannibalism. The 40-year-old even travelled to Minnesota after a person online expressed an interest in eating him, Dr. Brown wrote in his evaluation.

While the items of torture in the soundproofed basement dungeon are disturbing, the chats Mr. Portway shared with other men caught in the sting could chill the coldest of souls.

"Portway's chats demonstrate no end to his depravity," Ms. Belf wrote.

He discussed cooking children alive. He discussed the best way to abduct a child and dispose of the body. He solicited the help of a Kansas man to snatch a child, the government contends.

"To be clear, Portway intended to kidnap, rape, kill and consume a child and solicited others to assist him in this endeavor," the prosecutor said.

One of the chats involved a Florida-based puppeteer who used his role in the park and church to surround himself with children. Mr. Portway muses in chats with the puppeteer about eating children.

A Kansas man who accessed children through baby-sitting and volunteering at a hospital, was solicited by Mr. Portway to be his mentor in cannibalizing a child, the prosecutor wrote. They discuss children they know and plans to end these children's lives.

The chats make clear that Mr. Portway was part of a network of individuals dedicated to this grim purpose, Ms. Belf wrote.

Mr. Portway did not troll for children and never thought he could kill someone, Dr. Brown wrote.

"He acknowledged that when he has role-played in chats, he has stated that he would eat a person, but in actual life, he did not believe that he would do this," Dr. Brown wrote. "He did not think that he could actually kill a person."

Mr. Portway has admitted to possessing more than 20,000 images and videos of child pornography. Ms. Belf gives two analogies to show the massive size of the collection.

"It can be difficult to put such a large number in perspective but if he spent just 10 seconds looking at each image, it would have taken more than 55 hours to view them all," she wrote. "Each of those is not just an image or video, but rather also a child (or children) being abused. If each picture depicted just one child, those children would fill every seat in the TD Garden."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewed the files seized in the case against Mr. Portway. Only 388 of the images had been seen before. Those images depict 124 children, with only 68 identified.

"Portway had pled guilty to some of the most vile and heinous crimes known to our society, namely participating in the sexual exploitation of young children through the possession and distribution of child pornography and soliciting the kidnapping of a child for the purpose of killing and consuming that child," Ms. Belf wrote.